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I’m about to be sold.

I’m not going to live on Mirroean anymore. I’m not going to go to work or school or hang out with my friends. I’m not going to go on walks or swim in the waters of my planet. I’m not going to do anything.

I’m going to be someone’s pet.

I’m going to be someone’s slave.

There is no peace here, no acceptance of my future. There is only fear and dreading and longing for things to be different than they are.

I am nothing now.

It wasn’t always this way, and the change feels sudden. Fast. I feel like the world is spinning and I can’t quite get my balance. I feel like I’m about to fall and crash and then I’ll be able to see clearly.

Or I’ll be dead.

I don’t know.

Until this week, I was the daughter of one of the wealthiest families on Mirroean and I was engaged to marry one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet. I had dresses and went to parties and had a job I really, really loved working with families who relocated to my planet.

Now I am naked and cold and scared.

Now I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.

When my family decided to go on a last-minute trip before the wedding, I was excited. Visiting Orchid has always been a dream of mine. All of the water on the planet is purple. It’s incredible. At least, I thought it would be. I didn’t actually get to see it, so I still don’t know.

When we landed on Dreagle, I knew something was wrong. We’d made a wrong turn. The pilot had gotten lost. Hell, maybe he’d just needed to make a last-minute stop. I didn’t know.

Then the ship was boarded and I was taken.

Men came for me, blindfolded me. They hauled me away as I heard my mother and fiancé screaming for me, crying for me. Had they been taken, too? Was it just me? What was going to happen to them? What was going to happen to any of us?

I felt a pinprick of pain at my wrist, and then nothing. Everything faded away and went black. Noise disappeared and I was floating, then I was asleep.

When I woke up, I was in a dark, empty room. It was dry, but it was empty. There was nothing there. The guards wouldn’t speak to me, no matter how much I yelled, but I heard them outside of my door many times. Finally, I stopped yelling and started listening. I found out they planned to hold me until the auction. Well, it’s auction day.

And now I’m here.

Now I’m locked away.

Now I’m about to be given away, for money, to a man I know nothing about.

I’m about to be given away to someone who could be a monster or a murderer or a maniac.

I’m about to be sold as a slave.

I finally sit down. I know I’ll be punished. I assume I will, at least. It makes sense. People who issue orders expect to be obeyed. He told me to stand here, but it’s dark, and the room is cold, and I’m terrified.

I don’t want to be here.

I lean my head against a wall and wish for Mirroean. I think of the waters, of the beaches, of the sun. I think of the boardwalks and the friendly atmosphere. I think of everything I had and everything I no longer have.

And then I fall asleep.

“Hello?” I hear a voice and I wake from my brief nap. I didn’t even know there was anyone else here. I thought I would be alone in the darkness forever. When did other people arrive? “Hello?” The voice comes again. “I can hear you breathing.”

“Shh,” I whisper. “They’ll hear you.”


Tags: Sophie Stern The Hidden Planet Science Fiction